“You have come at the right time.” Marissa’s words were very poignant, but remained a mystery to my unknowing mind. I knew nothing of what she spoke. The darting of Alexander’s and Iostus’ eyes showed fleeting signs of understanding. I directed a sharp gaze at Alexander about my ignorance. I knew he would understand that I wanted clarification.
Alexander stepped over to me and tugged at my hands until they were intertwined with his.
“We’re expecting something to happen soon between the Healers and Hunters. Our Seers have forewarned a battle.”
Anger erupted from my lips,” What do you mean
battle?”
Marissa and Iostus took seats on the sofa and Alexander guided me down with him on the loveseat opposite them.
“Death, Layna. We have reason to believe that they are going to strike out in a series of killings against us.” Alexander’s patient voice spoke the words, but I could feel the anger as it rose off of his skin. It was almost a visible thing.
“Why are these people hunting us? I’m sorry, but I still don’t fully understand. I guess I should since I saw my house on fire. How does it benefit them for us to die? We heal people!” Alexander’s hand rose to rub my jaw. It was such an intimate touch. He then turned his head to Iostus.
“When Asclepius died, there were two groups that branched off from his teachings
—
those of us that healed and those of us that inflicted illness. The people that inflicted illness claimed to be Gods of Healing and medicine. In the early days, they infected people and then claimed to use magic potions to heal them. It was as though they wanted to be like us, almost pretending to be Healers. As the years progressed they became much more scientific in their practices. In order to get rid of the diseases they were spreading. they had to become very masterful at cures. Thus comes the science. They have deep rooted finances in this practice. Their medicine industry has now become the single wealthiest industry on the planet. Now think for a moment, Layna. We are healing people without all their concoctions. How do you think this would affect them in the long run?”
I seemed to recall conversations with Alexander that might have indicated some of this information, but it all seemed to click in my head just now. Conversations with Calvin also came to my mind. I wondered about him too now. Had he been the one to weaken me at the hospital? I had seen him there when I left.
My voice whispered out, “It makes them lose money. A lot of money.”
Iostus continued with a serious gaze at me, “They call themselves doctors of medicine. In fact, that’s exactly what they are. They are quite the experts on all their scientific concoctions. Unfortunately for them, that’s all they are experts on. The more we have come out into this new century, the more we have encouraged learning in self healing
—
simple means to cure the body. This funding has proven to be beneficial to human kind and we support it with all of our means. Healers are powerful, but truly do not need to be used all of the time. In most instances, humans can heal themselves. The education we provide and the Healers that we train have put us on their hit list. Thus, creating their Hunters. I do not know of the exact time that they began their existence, but it predates our generation. This war has been going on since the death of Asclepius but it seems to have progressed rapidly in recent times. They have drugs that they give them to make them superhuman. Their mission is to hunt us down and kill us. It has become worse. We believe they seek you out because they know of your special magic. We have searched for you for a long time.”
I leaned forward, feeling the danger in his words. Alexander’s strength continued to hold me through the security his hand offered as it grasped mine. Marissa continued to sit but uncrossed her legs and gave me a sympathetic smile. I was unsure what the sympathy was for, but I felt confident with Alexander next to me. I locked my gaze with Iostus, waiting for him to speak again. He shared a moment with Alexander and then spoke.
“We know you’re having dreams. Would you tell us a little about them now?”
What?
Alexander was sharing information about me with them. The look on his face confirmed his guilt. Pain sliced through my body like shards of glass. How could I have been so lost that I didn’t realize they needed something from me? I sat up fully and brushed aside all the emotions that had just slipped through. I was about to open my mouth when Marissa spoke.
“Layna, you can help us. The gifts that reside in you will help save humankind.” Strength reverberated through her words. I knew it was the right thing to do, but I still felt a little betrayed. Why couldn’t Alexander be honest about his intentions? Sure, the sex was great, we had a lot of chemistry; but really, he just needed information from me. He continued to hold my hand in support. I appreciated the support, but I was a big girl and had dealt with things on my own for a long time. My fingers slipped out of his hand and sat propped on my knees.
“I dream about snakes.” Still not sure how that was going to help, but it was out in the open now.
“Have you noticed lately that these dreams tend to be precursors of bad events?”
Iostus asked the question with such innocence but I was fully aware that he already knew the answer. Especially if
Sherlock
next to me had been reporting back about my actions already. As I sat there bitter, a few pieces of the puzzle started to fall together. The last time I had a dream about snakes, my house was on fire. Then before that, it was being vandalized. I relayed the information to everyone. I was the only one shocked with the revelation. And as I thought on it some more, I realized that the dreams had been going on all of my life and usually tended to indicate some sort of disaster. My legs crossed and uncrossed again, manifesting my nervousness over my predicament.
“Why the snakes?” blurted from my lips.
Alexander latched our hands together again and spoke, his face filled with apology. “Asclepius carried a rod with him. It had one serpent. The followers of medicine use his rod with two serpents as their symbol instead of the one. Your dreams have more than one serpent?” The question hung in the air for a moment.
“Yes.” What was he getting at?
“You are receiving some sort of warning aura off of them. It’s almost as though you can predict when they are coming.” The excitement in his voice was echoed in the face of Iostus. Marissa was the only one that seemed to sympathize with how I might be feeling in all of this.
“Aren’t there others that can do this? There was a child that could. I remember Alexander telling me a story about Guards.” I looked to Alexander for help with the story.
The words hung in the cool air of this office for a moment before I was greeted with a response. Iostus and Alexander looked at each other and a small nod from Iostus conceded that Alexander should talk.
“Aceso. Yes, there was great hope for his gifts, too. But the Hunters killed him. They knew what he could do. We believe they know what you can do, too.” His hands reached to caress my back. “It must be someone close to you. I believe they found you a long time ago. We have to keep you here where we can protect you.”
Silence ensued for a moment and then a tremendous weight of pressure settled right above my head. I slowly turned my face around the room and met everyone’s gaze directly. I could almost feel the glistening that brightens my eyes when I cry. Except I wasn’t going to cry, but instead I was heavy with something.
Marissa’s voice warmed the air as she came over to sit with me. “Your path is not a simple one, but those with great destinies never are.” As her arms enclosed around me I was unsure if it was her words or body that lifted some of the weight from my heart. Marissa pulled me to her as we stood together next to the sofa. Looking at the men confirmed their need to continue the conversation, and exhaustion was starting to settle in for me.
“I’m going to take Layna to get settled in her room. We can all speak more at a later time.” No one dared to argue as she looped our arms together and we sauntered out of the office. Alexander attempted to give me a half hearted smile but I just didn’t have the energy to return it. Marissa and I walked in silence through the building and out into the grounds. The serenity of this place calmed my heart until I felt almost normal again. I could hear the peaceful lapping of water and the rustling of leaves. All of this just barely touched my ears, but it was enough to be aware of all of it.
Chapter Twenty
My bags waited for me outside of the room
—
along with a voluptuous brunette who was very familiar to me.
“I can tell you need a drink.” Little specs of the sky looked me over and smiled. I remembered her as the woman standing on Alexander’s doorstep. Jealousy still flamed a little in my body and I worked to remind myself that they were related, after all. Surely, people didn’t date their cousins, right?
“Hi, I’m Layna.” I put my hand out to introduce myself properly.
“Scyrus.” She spoke confidently. I wondered how long she had known about her heritage. How long had she been among family?
“Let’s get your stuff put away so we can go out for a drink.” I wasn’t sure why she was here waiting for me, but I did realize that I was in desperate need for a friend. Everything had happened so fast and I couldn’t call any of my friends from home and talk to them. They would never understand the rabbit hole I had fallen into.
Scyrus guided me in and I looked around. It was a simple, yet cozy room. There was a large, probably queen size bed tucked into the corner of the room closest to the window. It was covered in large white fluffy bed accessories. I plopped my body right onto it and gazed out the window. Perfect. I was looking over a little stream in front of a hill. As I huddled on the bed, Scyrus began to hang my things in the closet in the bathroom. Seeing her with my clothes made me wonder if I needed to change clothes. What was I even wearing now? I looked down and saw that I had on a snug pair of jeans with a green Thermal long sleeve Henley shirt. It actually flattered my chest a little by showing cleavage in the front.
“Should I change?” I looked over to Scyrus, who was now done.
“I’m pretty sure you’re good for a little hole in the wall west Texas bar.” A giant smile spread across her face. For some reason, I knew I was really going to like this girl.
She drove us in the red little sports car I had seen at Alexander’s house. As she peeled off the Conservatory property I realized I didn’t have a phone with me. Good. Let Alexander worry. I didn’t need him to report my every action to Iostus.
“I was raised on the Conservatory.”
I looked at her curiously. Was she pulling thoughts out of my head? She seemed to be focused on the back woods roads we were on.
“I just figured you would wonder. I’m not a mind reader.” A small dimple slightly creased her cheek.
“I was. I guess I just wonder what it would be like to grow up knowing your family and who you are.” A little bit of envy crept through my words. It was difficult to not be envious of this woman next to me. A sudden tortuous thought started to attack my cerebral area. She was his cousin, right? Maybe he’d lied about that. It wasn’t as though he wasn’t trying to get something from me. If he hadn’t told me that they were somehow related then I probably wouldn’t have gotten so close to him. Cousin, yeah right! Wasn’t that what people always said when they were lying about family relationships? I was such an easy target. I couldn’t believe I fell for that. But, what about Irena? She seemed so real. I wanted everything she said to be real.
That’s what fantasy is, isn’t it? Too good to be true.
I glanced over at Scyrus. I could see her physical strength. She probably jumped on a stairmaster at ungodly hours of the morning and drank green shakes after. Her lips moved to the melodic words that came across her radio. I was pretty confident that it wasn’t a local station, considering where we were. It must be a CD or a satellite station. I actually recognized the music. It was Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. I had recently downloaded her music on my computer. My pulse quickened as another stray thought fired across. What if she was trying to kill me? Come to think of it, no one saw us leave. In fact, no one knew I was with her.
Escape plans were quickly being put together in my head as we pulled into the gravel parking lot of a shack, literally.
“Are you okay?” Her words sounded genuine. Great, she probably had some gift for lying. She placed the car in park and shut off the engine, then turned to look at me.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” My eyes continued their rapid spin around the vehicle as I attempted to plan a smooth escape.
“You look like you’re about to run away.” Scyrus stifled a small giggle as she spoke. Really, she was going to make fun of me while plotting my death. Bitch.
“I’m just really anxious to get my drink.” Now, I sounded like a complete lush.
“Let’s go, then.” She didn’t think twice before she stepped out and was heading towards the…shack?
I hurried to catch up and started my inquisition. “What is this place?”
Scyrus stopped at the old wooden door and turned to me, “It’s the closest place to have a good time out here.” A devious smile crossed her face and she walked in.